Bloodstained Saints
by JustLikePagliacciDid
Summary: AU. Shinji Ikari is part of the first generation born after Second Impact, the generation that has never seen the sun. When he looks up at the sky, he only sees shadows. Alas, for that sky is as gloomy as his fate!
1. 01

**A/N:** Let me begin by saying that this is the spiritual successor to the DeathEVA. I liked DE – I really did – but as I read through it after a one-month hiatus from writing, I realized it had serious problems with it. So, I ultimately decided to scrap it and use the experience on a brand-spanking-new idea.

**Bloodstained Saints – 01**

"_Of all these words of mice and men, the saddest are, 'it might have been.'"  
-a poet_

_walk with her/him: a phrase meaning 'to be attached to romantically.'  
-2014 Oxford Dictionary_

-

If Shinji Ikari was listening to his teacher, it did not show. He stared out of the window, absently, searching for some distant destiny that probably did not exist. His teacher rambled on about the horrors of the War. To him, and many of his generation, the War seemed like a long-ago, distant string of catastrophes that had no influence on their lives.

So, he let the teacher ramble as he stared out the window. The landscape outside was not cheery – long stretches of desolate nothing, choking Shinji's town with sheer emptiness. Shinji could not even begin to imagine what it would be like to be up in a helicopter over that Nothing – it would make you go mad, he was sure.

His obliviousness was suddenly broken by the gentle beep of his computer. He turned to it to find an extremely terse email from the Class Rep, scolding him for his obliviousness and ordering him back to his work. Sighing, Shinji did his best to listen, he really did – but, alas, his thoughts returned to the idea of Nothing.

-

As he sat in the cafeteria, he took the opportunity to really look at his classmates, and found that it was a symphony of sameness. The all wore the exact same uniform, all with the school's crest. Shinji searched into the recesses in his mind, trying to recall why he had been sent to this place, and found that he could not.

As he meditated on this fact, he heard the familiar shrill voice of the Class Rep from behind. "We need to talk," she said, with finality. Shinji sighed as she circled around to the opposite side of the table.

"I'm already talking to the school counselor," the boy said, softly. "What can you do that she can't?"

Hikari turned up her nose. "Hmph. Well, that's not what I wanted to talk about," she said, remaining tough. "I wanted to talk about something else."

There was a pause.

"Erm… what, exactly?" asked Shinji.

Hikari's I-am-your-superior veneer collapsed in a moment. She started blushing and managed to blurt out, "I want to take you out on a date."

Shinji stared at her. "Really?" he finally asked.

Hikari had suddenly become very uncomfortable. "Umm… how about tonight at ten?" she offered nervously. There was another pause, and she blushed a little more. "Nothing high-commitment, of course. Just dinner, maybe."

"Umm… ok," Shinji replied, turning a little pink in the face himself.

"Ok!" Hikari said. She was still pink in the face, but obviously pleased. "I'll meet you at the Yellow Diner."

-

_Why did you break that window?_

_I wanted to._

_What made you want to?_

_I looked up into the sky, and I saw something… I don't really remember what it was. I just know I needed to break _something_, or I would go crazy._

Therapy Session #44

-

Shinji began the slow walk home. It was cold outside, the fallout made sure of that. The trees refused to bear leaves or fruit, instead remaining barren and lifeless. He passed underneath one such tree and looked up into its branches. Through them, he saw the sun: a pallid, sickly glow in the grayish sky. Like most of his generation, he had never once seen the true glory of Sol with his own eyes.

As the sun past beneath a particular sullen streak of darkness, Shinji resumed his slow walk home. His uniform suddenly seemed cruel and oppressive; he wanted to get out of it at any cost. One step at a time, one slow, plodding step, he made it to his home. It was sometimes hard to notice, especially when he was deep in thought. It was one of the mass-produced houses made right after the War. It was white, two story, one garage. Each had precisely three bedrooms and two baths, with minimal decoration and maximum efficiency. It was on a row with houses all exactly like it, in a suburban zone with rows alike.

His guardians were silent, unfeeling people: they cared about their own flesh-and-blood children more than they did him. When he reached his home and walked in the door, his aunt was busy spoon feeding her six-month-old; the elder child, age two, was sitting on his father's lap in front of the TV. Shinji glanced this way and that, and neither even gave him a hello. Slowly, he made his way upstairs, and as he climbed the creaking wooden steps, he wondered about the hows and whys of human existence, and could find no answer.

-

He recalled his date with Hikari just in time. His guardians were completely apathetic to his coming and going – he headed out at ten at night, and they barely batted an eye. He walked down the darkened streets, lighted only by the odd working streetlamp and the almost undetectable light of the moon.

Shinji's walk was deliberately slow; he did not care if he was merely 'a bit' late. It seemed so infinitesimal when compared to the 18 billion years of the universe's existence that he could not bring himself to care. Once his long journey was over, he reached the Yellow Diner, a large, box-shaped building with yellow walls. Inside were kids on dates: it was the haunt for such minor trysts.

Shinji slowly approached the door, doubt clutching at his heart. What did Hikari think she was getting out of him, precisely?

As he approached the door, through the window he saw Hikari sitting alone. She was still wearing the pleated skirt and overcoat of the school uniform – Shinji absently wondered if girl's clothes were lighter than boy's. He silently pushed the door open and entered. Hikari's eyes immediately shifted to his, and her face lit up.

"I was beginning to fear that I'd been stood up," Hikari said, as Shinji sat down.

Shinji smiled absently and did not reply.

Hikari searched for some icebreaker when the waiter showed up. He was not the sort to pass judgment; he merely took their respective orders and left.

"You didn't order very much," observed Hikari, as the waiter walked off.

"I've never been very hungry."

"It's not very good for you," Hikari said.

There was a silence.

She suddenly turned pink and put her hands to her mouth. "I must sound like a total Nazi bitch," she said.

Shinji smiled at her. "No, it's ok… you're probably right."

She looked rueful. "I promised myself I would drop my Class-Rep persona tonight. I can't seem to do it."

Shinji shrugged. "If people just stopped acting everything would be easier."

Hikari cocked her head to one side. "That's profound. Did you think of that?"

"Yeah."

Their food arrived, and they ate in silence for a few moments. It was one of those rare moments when Shinji's thoughts were not drifting among the stars, but among the countless humans of the earth, sharing the same feeling that afflicts most at least once in their life: _I am sitting in the presence of a viable mate._

"Shinji?"

"Are you all right?"

"What do you mean?"

"I dunno." Hikari looked out the window. "It seems like… you're supposed to be elsewhere."

Shinji waited for her to elaborate.

"I can't quite describe it," she said. "It's like… I want to understand you… but I can't."

The foods arrived. They both ate in silence

"Shinji…?"

"Yeah?"

"I enjoyed this," Hikari said, blushing again. "You know, I always get flustered at times like this."

Shinji did that the strange dreamy grin of his - This was something _new_ – not necessarily good, but _new_. New things rarely entered his life. "I used to. I don't know why I stopped. I think it's cute, though."

She reddened even more. "Stop it! You're making it worse!" she giggled.

-

Shinji walked home, slowly. Hikari was such a sweet girl, he reflected – he wondered it would be like to walk with her. He'd be the envy of the school, the boy who finally managed to melt the evil, evil class rep's icy heart. He smiled at thought: Shinji Ikari, the new popular kid.

No one seemed to be out, this late. They never were, because everyone followed the same schedule with slight variations, except for the kids. As Shinji walked down the street, he heard footsteps, not his own. He turned around and saw nothing, only shadows split by occasional streetlights. Slowly, he turned around and continued on his way. As he walked, something seemed to change – the shadows, once amoral, suddenly turned sinister and evil. Those infernal footsteps… with each low noise, leering, catlike eyes seem to blossom in the darkness. Suddenly, there were red eyes everywhere, gazing out of darkness at him, watching his every step, like a chaos crawling through cracks in spacetime, seeping into his life and laying waste to all that it touched.

Shinji started running and immediately tripped over his own feet, sending him crashing to the ground. He felt pain; his hand split open, spilling blood on the ground. Dazed by the sudden pain, he started screaming, "Go away! Go away!"

In an instant, the hallucination was gone. A lone soldier stood in its place, wearing the gas mask and black armor that marked him as a Chemical Warfare Specialist. Shinji had a few seconds to process this fact before the nightstick crashed down on his head.


	2. 02

**Bloodstained Saints 02**

_It is not these well-fed long-haired men I fear, but the pale and hungry-looking.  
-Julius Ceaser_

_The long term effects of the fallout are unknown at this time, however, scientists at the UN Bureau of Climatology suggests that absence of sunlight will cause wide-spread vitamin D deficiency. Mandatory drug supplements for the general public are recommended.  
-UN 2004 Post-nuclear Analysis_

-

Shinji's head throbbed mercilessly; it felt like he was being hit over and over. He was blindfolded, gagged, and handcuffed. There was the steady hum of an engine beneath him. Occasionally, the van would drive over a pothole and bump violently. As he sat there, in the darkness, he began to fear that he had died and was now being driven to whatever hellish pit he had dug for himself.

-

Gendo Ikari sat at his desk, eyes gazing at the vast screen that displayed the activities of the military forces of an entire country – long-range ballistic missiles, heavy armor, light armor, infantry, special forces, naval fleets, submarine fleets, orbital bombers, and even the nuclear arsenal.

All of it was useless.

There was only one weapon Gendo Ikari had faith in, and it was in cold sleep five hundred meters below his feet.

"Target is approaching from the west coast!" announced Lieutenant Shigeru, from the collection of computers below the Commander's desk. "Nonterrestrial status confirmed!"

"An Angel," growled Fuyutski. "It's been fifteen years."

Suddenly, a red symbol appeared on the big screen. It vaguely resembled an Ankh – befitting.

"The UN Naval Warfleet is engaging!" pronounced Aoba.

A smirk gradually spread across Gendo's face. How many times had the UN Combined Military Taskforce been told that conventional ordinance was useless against the Angels? Two hundred, twenty-seven times, in several closed-doors briefings.

Oh well.

A live image appeared on the screen, tucked neatly into a corner. The Angel was seen for the first time – a vile monster, vast legs carrying it above the water. It had peculiar, y shaped arms, with two forearms extending from a single elbow. These arms ended in long claws, cruel and sharp. Its body was shielded by a brownish carapace; from between the seams in this armor seeped mysterious green goo, with roughly the same consistency as syrup.

Suddenly, a rain of missiles and cannon shells rained on the monster, cloaking it in fire. For a few moments, the feed was replaced by a 'VISIBILITY LOST' message. The NERV staff scrambled to recover it; after a few moments panic, the image returned.

The monster was unharmed. It continued to wade towards Japan.

Suddenly, Agents Kaji and Katsuragi entered the bridge. By the expression of wrath on the latter, they had gotten into another conflict. Kaji had a rather suspicious palm mark on his face.

Miraculously, the man maintained his composure. "Sir, we have located the Third Child," he said, coolly.

Misato said nothing, and walked the front of the bridge.

"Very good," Gendo replied, and remained silent. He turned to the laptop open on his desk; a communication screen was open, with live VOIT connections to all of the major branches of NERV. He selected 'NERV Medical' and pressed the 'live audio' button.

"Dr Akagi?" he enquired, neutrally.

"Sir," replied a female voice.

"What is the status of the First Child?"

"She isn't combat-ready. We'd need to give her a minor dose of amphetamines just to wake her up, and we don't know whether she would be able to pilot while on the drugs."

"I see." Gendo cut the connection.

Kaji was leaning against a pillar, near the exit. "Inspector Kaji?" Gendo asked.

"Sir?"

"What is the status of the Third Child?"

"ETA thirty minutes. I'll be leaving shortly to make the pickup."

"Very well," Gendo replied.

-

Shinji became aware of city sounds. The blare of horns, the constant murmur of voices, the roar of jackhammers all assaulted his ears. The stench of gasoline and car exhaust invaded his senses. Suddenly, a voice, loud and gravely, broke through his senses. It spoke with an American accent, though the language was Japanese. "Listen close, kid. Now, I'm going to take off your gag and blindfold. Then, I'm going to put you on your feet outside this van, and you're going to walk towards a man with a ponytail and an ugly tie sitting in the middle of a café directly ahead of you. You're going to walk up to him, sit across from him, and say 'I'm a bit of stranger in a strange land.' Then he's gonna uncuff you, and you're going to go with him. Understand?"

Shinji nodded.

"Very good."

Shinji felt himself being dragged forward, heard the door of the van be thrown open. His blindfold and gag were gone in an instant and he was roughly tossed out. The van's door slammed shut and it sped off, into the urban distance.

Shinji had never seen a city before.

His mind could not begin to comprehend it – the sheer size of the buildings around him, the towering urban mountain range that men had built with sweat and blood. Arms trapped behind his back, he turned around once or twice, overwhelmed by the immenseness of it all.

Slowly, he began to walk towards the café. It was a dull, drab place, across the street from him, with a few open seats occupied by latte-drinking yuppies. Shinji's eyes zeroed in on the man the kidnapper had described – ponytail and a very ugly tie. Slowly, he began to walk forward, nearly getting hit by a car as he passed. No one even glanced at him.

Slowly, he became aware of the apathy of the citydwellers – a handcuffed boy was walking across the street, nearly killing himself in the process, and no one batted an eye. No one, no one, no one.

Finally, he reached the café and entered through the open gate. He walked to the pony-tailed man - he was reading a newspaper, completely nonchalant.

"Hello?" asked Shinji, as he reached the man. Ugly-tie did not look up from his paper. Some silent force reminded him of the code. "I'm a bit of a stranger in a strange land."

The man looked up. "Ah. So you're the Third Child."

-

"My… father?" asked Shinji, slowly. By contrast, they were driving very fast, on one of the no-limit highways that connected Tokyo-3 with its various subcities. Kaji's red convertible was rapidly outpacing the other vehicles on the road; the sullen landscape tore by at something like the speed of sound.

"Yep," replied Kaji. "Gendo Ikari."

"But… he hasn't seen me for years… why does he care all of a sudden?"

Kaji grinned. "Maybe it would be best of you asked him yourself."

-

NERV's headquarters was located in a large pyramid, proudly standing on the edge of the city. It was yellow, with NERV written in red paint on all four surfaces. Shinji looked on in awe. "My father's… my father's built all this?" he asked, incredulously.

"Well, yes," Kaji said, playfully. "Along with the construction companies, arms corporations, and several hundred investors."

"Arms corporations?"

"Your father is a mercenary. Or a 'merc,' as we say in the biz."

"Mercenary…" Shinji muttered. It was such a strange word: the warrior who, instead of fighting for honor or glory, fought exclusively for monetary gain. In some ways, it was selfish and ignoble; in others, extremely brave.

The car rushed onwards, finally taking an exit after a full acceleratory burst. Shinji felt the wind whipping his face viciously. The car circled into a large parking lot, pulling into a space with a screech of brakes. In one motion, Kaji was out of the car and opening Shinji's door; the boy was startled by the man's speed.

-

Rei drifted through a dream. She was standing among a hundred million eyes, all gazing at her; they were in a deep, black void, without even a star to light the way.

"What are you?" Rei asked. Silence. "Identify yourself."

"I… am… Shinji…" a voice whispered in her ear.

-

"Hey, earth to Shinji," Kaji said. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, and, in an instant, Shinji Ikari's old life ceased to exist. As he walked into the strange, darkened room, he became of a sickening, deathlike smell. Slowly, he walked out, and the elevator closed behind him. He was alone. Shinji walked forward, slowly, in the darkness.

Suddenly, the lights burst on, and he saw a visage of terror: the cruel mask of Eva Unit 01. He stumbled back, tripped. It was like the cruel grin of a demon about to tear you apart. On its forehead was emblazoned a mysterious, pentacle-like symbol, except all of the arms were uneven, as if they were drawn by a child. He looked up and saw his father standing on a balcony above the Eva. "Father!" Shinji cried.

"Shinji," said Gendo, coldly.

"Father… what is all this?!" he demanded.

"It is an Evangelion," Gendo said. "The most powerful weapon ever created. You are to be its pilot."

Shinji slowly got up. "But…" the boy mumbled. "But… that doesn't make any sense…"

Gendo narrowed his eyes.

"Why me?!" the boy exploded. "Why?! Why did you pick me?" Then, more softly, he added:

"Why are you doing this to me again?"

-


	3. 03

**A/N:** I failed to mention this, but I'd like to thank Tmina, Sideris, and Hamstadini as prereaders. You rock, guys.

**Bloodstained Saints 03**

_Under the caverned pyramids great Set coils asleep;_

_Among the shadows of the tombs his dusky people creep._

_I speak the Word from the hidden gulfs that never knew the sun_

_Send me a servant for my hate, oh scaled and shining One!  
-Robert E. Howard_

_You're dog food!  
-Kouta Hirano_

_The long-term effects of genetic purification are unknown. Until the technology is understood, it is recommended that all products of the Project be sterilized, chemically or otherwise to prevent contamination of the Human gene pool with alien DNA.  
-2006 Report on the Human Instrumentality Project _

-

"Get in the Evangelion, Shinji," Gendo said, icily. The boy did not reply, but remained on the floor, looking on with horror. "Get in the Eva, or we're all going to die."

"Why?!" demanded the boy. "What the hell does this have to do with me?!"

Gendo narrowed his eyes, then walked to the side of the balcony. A small console was concealed there; Gendo entered a few commands, and a screen blinked alive to Shinji's left. The boy looked at it, and it displayed the most horrifying thing he had ever seen: the First Angel, Set. An eye had opened in its chest, a orangey, leering eye with a catlike pupil. It was bearing down on a sullen, seasweapt coast, guarded by tanks and artillery.

The armor began firing, mercilessly pounding the beast with explosive rounds. Artillery fell from above, falling upon the Angel in incendiary flashes. Set burst into flame, but did not stop, or even seem phased – it lumbered on until it stood only a few hundred meters away from his antagonists. He raised one of those y-shaped arms and sweapt it horizontally; in half a second, the entire cliff face disintegrated and fell into the sea, carrying the entire tank force with it.

"What…?" Shinji began, to shocked to say anything else.

"It is the First Angel."

"Well… what the hell is it?!"

"It is an alien, a creature without morality or logic. Its only objective is the destruction of humanity."

"_And what does this mean to me?!_"

"You are only the viable pilot for it."

Shinji looked up at his father, searching that cold, inexpressive face for some trace of affection. He could find none. "You should find someone else," the boy said, after a few moments of silence. "I owe you nothing."

Gendo narrowed his eyes. "Leave." He turned to the little console on the right and pressed the intercom. "Summon the First. The Third is unusable."

"She's half dead," a female voice responded.

"She'll do." He released the intercom button and walked away. Shinji just sat on the floor, too disoriented to get up and move. Suddenly, he became aware of the squeaking noise of a gurney. He slowly rose to his feet and saw several medical people approaching, crowded against the mobile bed like a meat-shield. For a brief moment, they parted, and he caught sight of a girl – an albino, evidently, slight of frame with large, unexpressive eyes. As they wheeled her to the small platform that led to the back of the Eva's neck. The girl seemed hauntingly familiar, like something that he'd lost a long time ago…

Suddenly, he heard a cry, from who he did not know. He walked over, virtually ignored. When he finally arrived, he got his first good look at Rei Ayanami.

-

"You look very smug," remarked Fuyutski, "especially in the face of total annihilation." They were on the Bridge, watching Set stomp on over the UN troops.

"I am confident my son will see the errors of his ways."

"How so?"

"He is too ethical for his own good."

"The target is approaching rapidly!" yelled Maya Ibuki. "Detecting seismic disturbances… the creature is _creating an earthquake!_"

The base rumbled violently, causing several NERV staffers to lose their balance. The Inertial Dampers moaned in protest. Gendo maintained his unreadability; when everyone was on their feet, he demanded a damage report.

"Structural stability maintained!" shouted out Maya. "No serious damage."

Suddenly, a communication request popped up on Gendo's laptop, coming from the EVA cage. He accepted, and his son's face appeared on the monitor, deranged and frightened. He cradled the damaged body of Rei Ayanami beneath him – his shirt and hands were stained with her blood.

"Is this what you want?!" demanded his son. "You want her to die?!"

Gendo narrowed his eyes.

"I'll pilot your damn robot," Shinji snarled, "But I hate you. Never forget it, _father_."

-

"All right, Ikari," Misato said, businesslike, "I believe that Dr. Akagi has briefed you on the Eva's functioning?"

"Yes," Shinji said, quietly. He sat in the orange depths of the LCL, staring at the walls of the Entry Plug with dull, deathly eyes. He got like that, after his occasional bouts of rage.

"You still with us?" asked Misato, after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah," Shinji deadpanned. The LCL felt like the Nothing: choking inwards, from all sides, merciless and cold, filling up his lungs with empty. It stung his eyes a little, but not very badly – it was like jumping in a pool without goggles.

"All right. Remember, we just want you to engage the target, not destroy it. When you land your first blow, withdraw. We're just looking for information on its abilities."

"Got it."

There was a pause. "Are you listening to me?!" Misato shouted, harshly.

Shinji flinched. "I'm sorry. I am, really."

There was a pause. "You're not quite what I imagined-"

"Enemy within ten kilometers of Tokyo-3!" one of the bridge grunts proclaimed.

"Shit," muttered Misato. "All right, deploy Unit 01!"

-

Misato watched the screen of Unit 01 rising out of the ground. The Angel, Set, was only a short distance away, y-arms hanging about the level of its knees. Five more eyes had opened in its chest, but they were all smaller than the main oculus – mere imitations and decoys.

Unit 01 was a fearsome machine, reflective purple armor dull in the permanent twilight. Misato glanced at the synch scores. "He's pretty good for a first-time pilot."

"Yep," agreed Ritsuko, neutrally. She sipped her coffee.

Misato reactivated the comm. "Ok, we're gonna take this slowly. Approach the Angel slowly, and-"

Set charged, four hands extended. Shinji yelped and jumped aside with startling agility, though he nearly bowled over his Eva in the process. Set circled around, nearly severing the umbilical chord as he did so. Shinji turned around to face the Angel, and the creature grabbed him, jerking Unit 01's arm. Shinji howled in pain.

"Shinji, _that isn't your arm!"_ Misato yelled, but the boy did not reply.

The arm snapped and Shinji screamed powerful. The claws slashed across Unit 01's face, gouging out one of its eyes, which fell away in a gory mass of machines and flesh. The optic nerve extended from the wound, grotesquely. Unit 01 stumbled back, and Set delivered a vicious slash, ripping one of the armored plates off altogether.

"Eject the plug!" yelled Misato, as the damage sensors moaned.

"It's not accepting outside commands!"

_Shit,_ thought Misato, viciously. "All right, order the UN to launch a decoy attack. We have to save the pilot!"

"Confirmed!" replied Shigeru. "UN bombers making a run."

Flame erupted across Set's back. The Angel whirled around, arms waving like whips. The psychokinetic force tore through the air, ripping the bombers' engines out away from the fuselage. They fell from the sky, exploding a short distance away. "Fuck!" exploded Misato. "Get him out of there!"

"I'm working on it!" snarled Ritsuko. "Get off my back!"

Misato looked at the cruel, inhuman face of Set. Where the hell did it come from?!

"We're getting energy signatures from Unit 01!" Maya cried out.

"What?!" Misato whirled around.

Ristuko rushed over to the console and leaned over it. "Oshit," she said, staring at the feed. The woman stood up. "Cut the feed!" she yelled. The image on the big screen was replaced by a map of Japan.

Before she even knew what she was doing, she'd grabbed Ritsuko by her collar, staring in straight into her eyes. "Why the hell did you do that?! _Answer me!"_

-

Shinji Ikari was gone, shunted into the deep, dark parts of his mind: the sullen, rusted part of the spirit-machine that propped up the marionette known as a 'body.' Rising up from that despairing darkness was a monster, perhaps some other soul or the 'second half' of the one he all ready had.

"You're Set, huh?" asked the other, reactivating the Weapon with ease. Unit 01 got to its feet eye regenerating. It looked just like Set's. "You really aren't much."

_What… are… you?_ asked Set, telepathically.

Alter-Shinji did not stoop to replying, not at first. "I was promised such a glorious opponent… and _this_ is what I get? I must say, my enemies have been slipping in their choice of servants."

_Answer… me… human…_

"You see," continued the alter-soul in its wicked, lilting voice, "I'm not actually human. I was called the Hound of Ur in the good old days, but… how to say… I'm not what I used to be. But some pitiful creature like you… you're _dogfood_."


	4. 04

**Bloodstained Saints 04**

_We've learned how to destroy, but not to create; how to waste, but not to build; how to kill men, but not how to save them; how to die, but seldom how to live.  
-Omar Nelson Bradley_

_As of the present, the fate of the 1999 expedition to Antarctica is unknown. It yielded only one specimen, carried home aboard the USS _Apollo _the day before Second Impact. This specimen is the first alien lifeform proven to exist.  
-UN 2002 Report on the Human Instrumentality Project_

-

"This is messy." Those were the first words out of Misato Katsuragi's mouth. The battlefield was sprayed with Angel Blood, splattered across the hills and plains. Occasionally a chunk of the Angel would lay on the ground like a gored mountain, but the pieces were not very big, as a rule.

Misato was on a helicopter circling over the warground in a helicopter. Ritsuko sat by her side, craning her neck to look through the window.

"We're coming in for a landing, ma'ams," said the pilot, neutrally.

"Very good," Misato replied.

-

Shinji was aware of a throbbing pain in his wrist. As his eyes opened, he saw that, somehow, he'd bitten his own wrist, sinking the teeth in deep. Horrified, he released his jaws and removed his hand. The bleeding had stopped, but it looked nasty. Still sickened by his apparent act of masochism, Shinji looked around the entry plug. Most of the LCL had drained, and he was alone with the machine. The weakling light of the emergency systems glowed faintly, casting a pitiful light on the device.

Suddenly, there was the dull _clank_ of machinery and the door rumbled open, filling the cockpit with blinding light. Shinji groaned, shielding his eyes with his good hand. Suddenly, a few rough hands reached in and pulled him out roughly, into the blinding nothing.

Shinji's brain futilely tried to orient itself as it was dumped onto a stretcher and carried off. His eyes displayed a few discordant images: people in NERV uniforms scurrying about a battlefield stained with blood. The demon form of Unit 01 knelt down on the earth, as if it was issuing some blood-prayer to the sullen sky above. Shinji's brain did its best, it really did, but in the end it gave up. It just could not put all of the stimuli.

Especially when he was shunted into a dark ambulance and driven off. That was all he could take, and the world went dark.

-

"I see," Ritsuko said, calmly, listening over the cellphone. "Well, give him some antibiotics, bandage it, then put him in the LCL chamber. He should be fine." Misato climbed over the upturned soil and surveyed the damage with a critical eye.

"If he keeps getting the Eva banged up like this… I don't know what we're going to do," Misato sighed. "We lost one of the eye plates."

Rits climbed up to her friend's sides. "Strange. The eye should have gone with it."

"So, why the antibiotics?" they started climbing back down, towards the mash of NERV agents and army grunts in the crimson field below.

"Apparently, he bit himself."

Misato turned to her with a look of disbelief. "He… what?"

Ritsuko shrugged. "Apparently, while Unit 01 was in control, he decided to bite his wrist. It's a miracle he didn't bleed to death."

Misato sighed. "Man, this kid his more messed up than Rei. Are you sure he's safe?"

Ritsuko shrugged. "He never showed signs of extreme violent urges – just breaking windows and little things. Also, we can give him optimal treatment, so we'll probably be able to get rid of most of his problems."

"Famous last words… I guess he's all we have, anyway."

-

Shinji was distantly aware of Orange. It was like being in the Entry-Plug, but somehow less hostile. He could not see any walls, and there were no controls to grasp, nothing to kill. He realized gravity no longer applied to him, and that he was free-floating. His eyes, ears, and nose were all filled with LCL, but somehow, it did not sting.

_Maybe I'm dead,_ he thought, absently. Yes, that would be an appropriate end to his life's journey – born to a murderer, raised by zombies, stolen from his would-be girlfriend, and finally killed by aliens. That sounded just right. The LCL was warm on his skin – somehow, this is how Shinji imagined it felt like to be back in his mother's womb, without any worries. The only thing he needed to see was the endless ocean of LCL, just like the only thing a baby needed to see was the endless ocean of amniotic fluid.

_Yes, I'm probably dead,_ he concluded. He recalled reading about the Buddhists, who thought that every time you died you were reincarnated in a new body. You spent the time between in a kind of limbo. Maybe this is it, Shinji meditated. Maybe I should shave my head and become a monk. Hah. That was impossible.

-

"The Hound is active?" asked Gendo, apparently speaking to his laptop.

"It seems that way," replied Ritsuko. "There's nothing in Shinji's psych profile to suggest masochism." Gendo's computer had a large AUDIO ONLY screen plastered across it.

"Take steps to suppress it."

"Yes, sir."

"What is the status of Unit 01?"

"The damage is quite minor. All biological components have completely regenerated, and the armor is fairly stable."

"Very good."

Gendo cut the connection and leaned back in his chair. The screen displayed a newscast from the Global Network, who in turn was playing a press conference from the UN Ruling Council. "The government has concluded that the only effective weapon against the Angels is the Evangelion…"

"The government finally bowed to us," mused Fuyutski.

"They need to lose six hundred men before they realized the gravity of the situation."

"Sounds like a committee at work…"

Suddenly, his computer alerted him to another caller. Gendo leaned forward and accepted the contact. AUDIO ONLY returned.

"Pilot Ayanami has just awoken," an unknown nurse said, neutrally.

"Very good," said Gendo, "I will see her shortly."

-

Shinji had just become accustomed to the orange when he suddenly was flushed from it.

Down, down, down he was pulled, spinning around some nightmare axis towards certain doom. Shinji struggled against the current fruitlessly, and was suddenly pulled into the cold air. He was hit by the first freezing blast of the outside world. He was blinded by the sudden, brilliant lights, and did not notice the quilt being wrapped around him until the sudden frigid sensation weakened and he started to feel warm again. Then, his eyesight came back.

He realized he had been deposited in a white-washed hospital room, sitting in a bed. An unfamiliar ceiling stretched above him, apathetic towards all those who had lived and died beneath it. Moving on a sudden impulse, he pushed himself upright and climbed out of bed, the hospital clothes hanging loosely from him. His footsteps sounded like steel drums on the icy linoleum floor. Slowly, he approached the door and opened it.

Suddenly, he was gazing out a window, out onto the Nothing that separated cities from one another. The hall seemed deserted; the endless rows of doors stretched off towards distant elevators in either direction. There were also two side-corridors leading to other wings of the building.

There was the sound of a hospital bed being wheeled along. Shinji turned and saw several nurses moving a patient down the hall.

And there was his father.

The man was walking alongside the rolling table, eyes focused on the person laying there. He did not look at his sun, or even suggest to the boy that he really existed. As they rolled past, Shinji noted the deathlike form of Rei Ayanami, eyes dully gazing up at the ceiling panels.

And then they were gone.

-

Kaji extreme dislike extended to two basic things: ice-bitch women, and no-smoking signs.

He had just encountered the latter.

The agent watched the cars passing through the hospital parking lot, coming and going at the frantic pace the calls through a switchboard. Occasionally, an ambulance would rush through and drop off some poor fool who had gotten in Set's way.

After half an hour, Kaji dropped his smoke and stamped it out on the ground. He confidently moved into the lobby and approached the front desk, with a _very_ cute secretary. However, there was no time for that – alas, some castles must remain unconquered. He passed her by and made his way to the elevator.

-

Shinji was back in his windowless room, sitting in the middle of his bed. He had been chastised by the nurses for getting out of bed and firmly returned to his proper place, his only company four impersonal white walls.

The door swung open. Shinji's head swiveled towards the disturbance: it was the man who had picked him up, Kaji… He still had that ugly tie, smooth smile, and pseudo-formal dress that seemed out of place with the uniformed employees of NERV.

"How are you, my boy?" asked the man, pleasantly.

"Fine," Shinji replied, softly. He looked down at his sheets, unable to meet the agent's gaze.

There was an uncomfortable pause.

"What's the matter?" Kaji asked, soothingly.

Shinji looked up. "I don't know," he admitted. "It's just that… why'd my father have me kidnapped?"

Kaji sighed. "There wasn't time to recover you through more… conventional means. We would have been dead a long time before social services got around to transferring custody to Commander Ikari and shipping out here." There was another pause, this time more relaxed. "Come on, I'll drive you to your new quarters."

-

The drab, gray buildings of Tokyo-3 stretched over him. Shinji gazed out at passerby, face distant.

"So, you'll be living on your own?" Kaji inquired.

"Yeah," Shinji replied.

"I see." They sat in silence, as Kaji masterfully navigated the manifold roads of Tokyo-3. The city filled Shinji with awe and wonder, but also deep fear: as the labyrinth must have struck Theseus when he approached with his sword and ball of thread.

"So," Kaji began, not taking his eyes off the congested urban vistas, "Why don't you go live with your father?"

"I don't like him very much," Shinji replied, noncommittally.

"Why not?"

"It's not important." Shinji's voice grew darker and more withdrawn, as if he were retreating from light that shined onto painful topics. Kaji sensed that he had poked the boy too much, pushed him too far too fast. But the kid was off balance, still getting his emotional guard up properly.

"So, kiddo, how would you like to stay with me?"

Shinji's head swiveled around. "Huh?"

"I asked if you would care to stay at my place for a while-"

"_Why?_"

Kaji frowned. "Jeez, you can't even offer people shelter these days…"

Shinji looked out of the window again. His thoughts drifted to the stark, empty room that awaited him, equipped with all the most basic necessities of modern life. He thought of those four unfamiliar walls. He thought of being alone. Then, his thoughts drifted back to his aunt and uncle, who had left him alone – not physically, but in their secret hearts, they had sealed him out, out in the cold darkness.

"Can I stay with you?"

Kaji stopped and stared at the boy. "Kid, we're all most all the way to your new home, and you change your mind _now?!_"

-


	5. 05

**Bloodstained Saints 05**

_We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police.  
-Jeff Marder_

_Beneath the stygian realms they lie,  
Breath of poison,  
Eyes of gods,  
Beneath the earth they sleep and lie,  
17 Angels, teeth as knives.  
-Anonymous_

-

Kaji's apartment was not a remarkable place. It had a couch, a chair, a TV, a few pieces of surrealist artwork hanging on the wall, and three bedrooms. The walls were white, with a few windows gazing out onto the grey city below. When Shinji arrived, he found his few possessions neatly stacked in a box just inside the door.

"Huh?" asked, picking them up.

"I had them forwarded here," Kaji explained, pleasantly. He strode into the room and deposited his keys on the table and headed over the kitchen.

"But…"

"I figured you'd decide to stay with me," Kaji explained. "Kids don't like to live on their own. After all, most runaways come home after a few hours."

"Oh…" Shinji picked opened his box and took inventory. There were his books… his small collection of art supplies, paper, his sketch pad, a small office light, on all his existing drawings.

"Your room is the empty one on the left." Kaji noted, preparing a cup of ramen.

Shinji entered and found the room unadorned, containing only a desk and a bed. Slowly, Shinji entered and began to assemble his possessions on the desk. His hand instinctively moved them into the exact same arrangement as they had when they still were at his aunt and uncle's. Shinji marveled at his sense of routine before the ding of a microwave summoned him to dinner.

They ate in silence, two males occupying the same living space without knowing or understanding one another.

"Kaji?"

"Hmm?"

"What is Eva, exactly?"

"It's the Commander's creation."

"But what is it? What is it made out of?"

Kaji swallowed and grinned. "That knowledge is way above my pay grade, Shinji. There are a lot of people who would kill for that knowledge."

Shinji was startled. "Kill?! What kind of things is my father involved with?"

"Saving the world. It's a lucrative business, after all. There are lots of companies who would like to break into it."

They finished eating in silence, and disappeared into their separate rooms. Shinji changed into the pajamas that had been packed with his clothes and laid down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. It was unfamiliar, just like the hospital.

After several sleepless hours, Shinji threw off the covers and walked over to his desk; flipping on the desk lamp, he took his pencil and paper and slowly began to draw. He did not choose what he imaged; his hands went where they will and that was fine with him. After a while, he produced an image of that girl… Ayanami, she was called, lying on the ground, covered in her own gore. Her face was twisted, her body contorted in agony. Gore spread across the cold steel floor, offering no comfort to the pained girl.

Silently, Shinji placed the picture in his box and returned to his bed.

-

_The following morning._

Rei stood outside the hospital, blinded by the sudden glory of the sun. She had replaced her hospital gown with her generic school uniform: a knee-length plaid skirt, an overcoat proudly displaying NERV's symbol over its breast pocket, and a white shirt underneath that. Like everything Rei involved herself with, its design was, drab and cold, almost inhuman in its dark symmetry.

The land around the hospital was carefully manicured to protect its patients from any threat: all was green and pleasant. Rei was standing under the low overhang that overshadowed the wide hospital doors. Ambulances waited for atrocities in the parking lot, and the infirm came and went.

Finally, Akagi's car pulled up. It was a blue sedan, small, efficient, and inexpressive . Rei liked Akagi's car better than she did Ritsuko herself. As the car slowed, the passenger door clicked unlocked and Rei got in, silently.

The car had left hospital grounds before the doctor said anything. As the gates disappeared into the distance, the scientist immediately said: "We're beginning the initialization test tomorrow. We've weeded out the problem that caused the failure last time."

"Yes, doctor," Rei said, quietly.

The woman pulled to a stop at a red light. Her blue eyes scanned the distance. "The project is falling behind schedule.

"I apologize."

"We cannot hold out against the Angels forever. The fourteenth may well be invincible, if our sources are to be believed."

"I am well aware."

Akagi gave her a harsh look. "The Commander will not tolerate further delays. Do not fail this initialization."

"I understand."

In a second, the woman's ice-queen veneer disappeared, and she turned back into Ritsuko, Rei's "pal." To Rei, it seemed as though this schizophrenia pervaded much of human society. After a few minutes, Ritsuko was chatting one-sidedly on matters of no interest – small talk, it was called. The First Child paid just enough attention to know when to answer 'yes' or 'no' correctly, but no more. Rei was distantly aware of something about clothes when a familiar name came up: "Shinji…"

"Excuse me?" asked Rei, quietly.

"Hmm? I was just asking what you thought of Shinji…"

"Who is 'Shinji?'"

"I guess you don't remember. He's the commander's son… just arrived in a couple days ago from his aunt and uncle's home. He cradled your head in his lap when you fell off the hospital bed during Set's attack." She paused. "You know, he's really quite sweet."

Rei's memory displayed an image of countless leering red eyes and a lilting disembodied voice.

"You should get to know him."

"Why?"

There was a pause.

"How am I supposed to answer that?" asked Ritsuko, dryly.

Rei considered saying something glib. The Commander did not appreciate such remarks, but… perhaps…

"I could inquire the same thing of you," replied Rei, deadpan.

"Huh…? Rei, did you just make a _joke_?"

"No, Doctor. I merely made a comment."

Ritsuko smiled. "But still, you should get to know Shinji… it'd be good to have friends, you know."

"Why?"

She shrugged.

Rei did not bother to inform Doctor Akagi that she too had read the article in Psychology Today about how teens with friend-peers were 12 more stable on a psychoharmonic graph then those without.

-

Rei's home was a dark, forlorn house within view of NERV, standing lonely on a hill. It had been there since the sun of the Japanese Empire rose over Manchuria and Hawaii.

Obviously, this is of little relevance, and so it did not occur to Rei as she walked through the door. She felt the eyes of her bodyguards on her, hiding behind rocks and trees. She disappeared through the front door, and her neglected house absorbed her in its loneliness.

Shinji had an aunt and uncle, but Rei had no one, and did not need them.

-

_Somewhere in Germany…_

Unit 02 was among the mountains, completely covered in snow. Its superhuman eye gave its lone pilot and clear view of the pass, infrared imaging showing the brilliant glow of the feux-angel. Asuka kept her machine as the four-armed entity made its plodding way through the pass, its chest-eye darting about faster than any human could perceive.

The wind roared through the microphones lining the EVA's armor.

The Angel was directly below Unit 02 now, moving doggedly forwards. As it was just underneath its unseen stalker, the EVA pounced, rising from its frozen sheath and striking. It descended like a beast from a legend so terrible that it's been systematically forgotten, claws raking down across the unsuspecting Angel.

It never got a chance to strike back.

Asuka tore it limb from limb, arms tearing and rending mercilessly. When the Angel had become many pieces, Asuka smashed the eye, which she had left intact through the entire ordeal.

"SIMULATION ENDED."

The ice world around Asuka faded and she was once again in her entry plug, a crude imitation of the battle glory she would soon control. The exit panel slid away and the redhead pulled herself free, hair soaked by LCL. The German branch of NERV was all around her, with its countless computers and egghead technicians. The hum of hundreds of processors was omnipresent, merciless.

Asuka was soon joined by her attendant, Elise. Elise was twelve, and said nothing as she offered her mistress a towel. Asuka accepted it wordlessly and dried her hair, not bothering to take out the A-10 nerve connectors.

"That was a fine job," a voice interjected. The Second looked to her left and saw a large monitor displaying the words 'NERV 00, Medical-1.' Ritsuko Akagi was calling from the Japanese branch, in other words.

"It was nothing," Asuka said, smoothly.

"We need not fear the angels when you come," continued the doctor. "However…"

"What?" asked Asuka, sharply.

"I told you to stop doing extraneous damage. Destroy the core and only the core."

"But _Doctor…_"

"I'll have none of it. To capture intact cadaveurs is more important than total annihilation – the Angels will not fear you for it, they do not grasp fear."

"Doctor, how do you know that?"

"Because…" There was a pause. "There are things you do not know. Don't presume to have all the answers."

Asuka produced a _hmph_, not stooping to a response.

"You're a good pilot, Asuka, but don't pretend like you're perfect. Nobody is."

-

On the drive home, Asuka fumed with maniacal rage. "Who is she to tell me to hold myself back?!" she demanded. Elise sat next to her, delicate hands folded in her lap. "Humanity is in danger, and she wants me to give less than my all?" Asuka did not wait for an answer. "Some people…" She was in a stretch limousine, which was speeding through Berlin. It had all of the amenities someone like Asuka could ever want – internet connection, digital phone connection, and one-way windows, should she ever have a romantic tryst that could not wait. "Some day, I'll give her a piece of my mind. You agree with me, right Elise?"

"Yes, Mistress." Her voice was dull and neutral. To give any other answer was certain doom.

"I thought so. Now-"

The digital phone set into the back of the seat in front of Asuka's rang, loudly. Furrowing her brow, the young woman picked it up. "Ja?"

"Auska."

"Oh…" she said, nervously. "Mother."

"I'm afraid I won't be able to see you off. I've got a lot of work to do. This Russian incident is a bigger mess than a thought."

"Ok…" Asuka struggled to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

"I am very sorry. There's nothing to be done."

"It's ok… really…"

"Goodbye, my child." The voice of her mother was replaced by a dull, inhuman dial tone. Slowly, Asuka hung up the phone and looked out the window, eyes distant. Elise just stared at the back of the next seat up.

-

Day two with Kaji. Shinji was eating breakfast, which consisted of orange juice and something that could have been eggs. They sat opposite one another, silently. Shinji always managed to become a black hole of conversation: Hikari Horaki was one of the few who could illicit a response from him, but she was far away.

"How do you like Tokyo-3?" asked Kaji.

"It's fine."

There was a pause. "Tell the truth, Shinji."

The Third looked up from his plate. The man was looking at him with unreadable dark eyes, a faint smile on his face.

"It's full."

"How so?"

"It's full of things. People. Things. Memories. Noises."

Kaji waited for his charge to elaborate.

"Mostly bad."

Kaji raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

Shinji looked out the window, eyes distant. "Just to see it is to witness a rape of the earth."

"You could say that of a lot of places."

"Yes… but here… I can _feel_ it, not just see it. There's something wrong, something fake, like this place is a caricature of a city, something meant to stand until it is unneeded, then collapse like a house of cards in a gentle wind. This place is a false city."

Kaji smiled and glanced out window. "An entire city as a decoy. That's quite a thought."

"Am I wrong?" asked Shinji. The boy's eyes shifted to Kaji, suddenly in focus. "Please, tell me I'm wrong."

The agent sighed, lowering his fork. "I don't know, Shinji. But I want to show you something, first."

-

They were passing through the congested streets of the city. Cars of all shapes and sizes flowed around them like a chrome river with concrete banks. A torrent of pedestrians mobbed the sidewalks, so tightly packed that one misstep could send someone spilling into the road. The window was down, and Shinji could smell the car fumes from thousands of hungry engines.

"It smells terrible."

"That it does," agreed Kaji. "Why don't you roll up the window."

"Part of me wants to smell it."

"_Why?_"

"I dunno."

Kaji smiled, smoothly. "Some people enjoy pain."

"Why?"

"It validates their existence. It proves that they stood upon this big earth and took something away with them, even a bad something."

"That's crazy."

"Isn't it? I learned that in my psyche class back in college – all handwaving, in my opinion."

As the car escaped the urban gridlock, they entered an area filled with sickly yellow grass, stretched across hills like skin across a dieing man's bones. Various old houses stood on these knolls, mostly unoccupied. They were the few buildings high enough to be spared from the floods that followed the War.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

After fifteen minutes of driving, the old thunderbird climbed a hill and stopped beneath a tree. From this vantage point, Shinji could see all of Tokyo-3. The concrete monster loomed before him, stone spires swarmed by thousands of tiny buildings. Smokestacks belched sullen dark gas into the mustard yellow sky. The sun sank low into the horizon, casting a crimson glow over urbia.

"What is this, Kaji?"

"It's Tokyo-3. We just left there, I case you weren't paying attention."

"No, that's not what I meant…"

"I just wanted to impress upon you a certain fact… This is humanity, so far as we are concerned. Now, humanity has done some hideous things – as Voltaire once put it, 'History is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.' So, why not let humanity die? It's not like we've accomplished very much."

The question startled Shinji. "Because…"

"Because what? The Holocaust? The Great Depression? The Rape of Nanking? The Conquest of Mesoamerica?" 

"But if humanity dies out, what about me? I'll die."

"But Shinji… why is your life worth saving."

It's been said that a mouse applying pressure to exactly the right point can topple a mountain. This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but the point remains – the right strike at the right place can change the world.

Shinji was forced to confront a frightening fact. _My life is not worth living._ "But…"

"To live without purpose is a terrible fate, Shinji."

-


	6. 06

**A/S:** Preread by Tmina and Hamstadini. You guys rock!

**Bloodstained Saints 06**

_Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of a sculpture.  
-Bertrand Russel_

_This is not a story.  
-A Philosopher_

-

"No worries, Shinji," Kaji said, coolly. "It's a good school. Rei goes there." Shinji was wearing the uniform that had been delivered to Kaji's apartment. Outside, the sun cast a pallid glow on the sickly trees of Saiachi Academy. The facility had several separate buildings, each marked with a number. Students in dark uniforms were steadily migrating towards the campus, in groups ranging from three to ten.

"What… is this?" asked Shinji, voice trembling. He was sitting in the passenger seat, watching the school in awe.

"Your father had you sent here," Kaji explained, pleasantly. "Only the rich get in, you know."

"But…"

"Don't worry, Shinji. If you have problems, just find Rei – she's been going here since kindergarten."

"You mean the girl with the blue hair…"

"That's the one. Good luck, Shinji."

Shinji slowly got out of the car. Kaji drove off, suddenly realizing he was a good five minutes late for work. The Third slowly advanced toward the academy, feet clopping loudly on the asphalt. He could not pick out Ayanami's distinctive blue hair, try as he might.

He passed a group of young women in the school's uniform, chatting cheerfully among themselves. Eventually, he stopped and leaned against a twisted, lonely tree, scanning the new arrivals until he finally noticed Rei: a short girl with a shock of blue hair passing through the main gate. He got up and made his way towards her.

Rei's left arm was in a sling, her eye was covered by a bandage, and bandages were stuck over visible patches of skin. "Ayanami!" he called. Her head swiveled in his direction.

"You are the Third Child?" asked Rei.

"Yeah…"

"I am late," she said, almost sternly.

Shinji flushed a bit. "I'm- I'm sorry. This is my first day, and I don't know-"

"Follow me." Rei set off meaningfully. Her stride was a powerful one, despite her low frame. Her book bag hung from her good arm limply.

Shinji glanced around nervously. "Umm… how long have you been at NERV?" asked Shinji.

"Seven years," she replied, flatly.

"Oh…" He searched for something to say. He rapidly found that it was impossible to make small talk with Ayanami – she simply was not conducive to it. He did not want to talk about her hair or her eyes for fear of offending her, and he did not want to ask after her injuries for the same reason.

"I'm sorry!"

She turned around and Shinji had to rush to reach the top before she disappeared out of site. He reached the landing just in time to see her disappear through a doorway. Putting on a burst of speed, he rushed to the closing door – room 19, it was labeled – and burst in.

It was nearly empty, and contained all of six students. Rei was approaching her desk, where a student with blond hair and glasses had assembled a chess set on a desk. He stood over the board, looking smug.

"Aida," acknowledged Rei.

"Ayanami," replied the boy. He sounded and looked at least part American. Near him sat a boy with a flattop haircut and a resigned look.

"She's a murderer," he said, through a thick Yakuza accent. "She's gonna destroy you, Kensuke, just like the last one hundred times."

"Not this time!" He proclaimed. Rei seated herself, taking command of the black forces. "I have a new opening, which is guaranteed to work!"

"Move," Rei said, flatly.

Kensuke gave her a harsh look and advanced his pawn.

"I thought you said we were late," panted Shinji.

"I recall saying that _I_ was late, Ikari," Rei said.

"You know this guy?" asked Kensuke, confused. "He your boyfriend or something?"

"No!" Shinji exclaimed, louder than was strictly believable.

"He is a coworker," Rei said, and pushed her own pawn forward.

"You have a job?"

"Play," repeated Rei. The game commenced. Shinji sat at the desk beside and watched the game play out, eyes watching the pieces move and fight across the checkered field. Kensuke, he noticed, was visibly nervous; Rei remained stoic. The jock simply closed his eyes and relaxed, resigned to his friend's complete annihilation.

Suddenly, Kensuke's queen charged out from behind his line of pawns and captured Rei's bishop. "Ha!" he proclaimed. "You have fallen into my trap!" Shinji's imagination instantly summoned a picture: a white warrior queen carrying twin blades, standing among a field of corpses. In the distance, smoke rose, and crouched men with pikes dotted the background.

Rei's own queen dodged out of nest and directly attacked Kensuke's king. The white bishop defended, when Rei retaliated by moving her rook to the first rank, striking at Kensuke's trapped king. The bishop, pinned to the king, was powerless to defend.

"Checkmate," Rei said.

Another image flashed through Shinji's head: two gigantic dark figures shaking hands, standing over a checkered battlefield lined with twisted corpses. Flames rose from piles of burning bodies as the tired survivors of the losing side raised their weapons for one last stand. The white king lay on his side, mortally wounded.

Kensuke's face twisted into a look of utter horror. "How did I… how did I… lose?"

As Kensuke bemoaned his fate, Shinji produced his drawing pad and a pencil from his bag and began to draw the two pictures, lovingly shading each on with complete detail.

-

Kaji strode into work with a smile on his face and his tie suitably ugly. Misato was leaning over Ritsuko's chair to read a console, eyes scanning the data on the screen with lightning speed. Ritsuko was sipping her coffee and looking neutral.

"I'm back!" Kaji said, cheerfully. "Didja miss me?"

Misato's eyes froze over the screen. "Kaji," she said, in her darkest possible voice.

"Yep?" he acknowledged cheerfully.

"Do you realize how late you are?"

"Uhh… ten minutes?"

"Yes, Kaji. And when you're in the business of saving the world, **THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE!**" She turned on him, eyes blazing like a tormented demon from the lowest, darkest pit of hell.

"Come on, I don't think ten minutes would make much of a difference to an Angel," Kaji said, as if hurt.

Ritsuko leaned back on her chair and pulled a pair of headphones over her ears. "Tap my shoulder when you two are done," she said, flatly.

"Wrong! If you were needed to make a recovery, where would you be? Out screwing some hussy, that's what!"

"I was taking Shinji to school," he replied, defensively. "Although the biology teacher did look rather fine…"

"Why can't you take anything seriously, dammit?!" demanded Misato. "This is serious!"

"Come on, cut me some slack. Since when do angels show up every day? Last time they took fifteen years…"

"That proves nothing!" she yelled at him. "We know _nothing_ about them, except that they're hell-bent on our destruction!"

"But-"

"GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" yelled Misato, and Kaji scurried from the room. She turned and tapped Ritsuko on the shoulder.

She removed the headphones. "So," asked the Doctor, "Are you through berating him for the day?"

"I might strike again at lunch – I'm feeling pissy today. What'd we learn from our extraterrestrial friend?"

"Well, his genes are more than a bit weird," Ritsuko began, pulling up a magnified image on the computer. It showed DNA structured in an elaborate hexagon formation, much like a snowflake.

Misato whistled. "Not earthborn, that's obvious."

"Exactly. But stranger…" she pulled up another image, this one displaying the creature's crushed eyeball. "This eye contains many fluids found in industrial waste products."

"Pollution? Why?"

"No idea. However, it's been theorized that it somehow landed in a polluted zone – say, the coast of Australia - and picked up the chemicals there."

"I don't like it," muttered Misato. "It doesn't fit."

"Nor do I. I don't believe it could accrue these kinds of concentrations without prolonged exposure."

"Then what?" asked Misato.

"_So_ it's been on earth for some time. Sleeping. When the industrial revolution rolled about, it started picking up two hundred years worth of filth."

"Sleeping…" She considered. "Rits, how did it go undetected? It's a goddamn monster."

"I don't know, Misato."

"How many are there?"

"If we missed this thing… well, there could be hundreds."

-

"The war raged for a little under twelve hours," the history teacher droned. "For twelve hours, the People's Republic of China and the United States of America rained ballistic destruction upon each other. It was a new kind of war, one without vast armies marching across enemy soil, without armored divisions crushing armies beneath their treads. It was fought entirely on the interweb, in the air, and at sea."

His voice was completely deadpan. Shinji paid just enough attention to realize that this would be interesting in the hands of a competent teacher.

"When the war was over, casualties were in the millions, and governments of either country were in ruins. The leaders of the world became painfully aware of the fact that conventional wars were fully capable of ending human civilization."

Shinji's eyes wandered across the student body. Almost all showed near-total disinterest. They were whispering to one another, passing notes, playing games furtively programmed in the computer lab and then transferred to school laptops. Shinji's own computer had been issued to him shortly before the class began. It lay shut on his desk.

His eyes turned to Rei. She was gazing out the window, legs neatly crossed. Her laptop was unopened as well. And Shinji reflected that she was beautiful.

-

Unit 00 slept deeply, its alien eye shut. Its new paint job was complete, instead of being orange and displaying PROTOTYPE in large letters, it displayed 'UNIT 00' and was painted blue.

The PR division had decided that having it say 'prototype' would be a blow to public confidence, and so badgered the Engineering division into doing a twelve thousand dollar redesign.

Ritsuko sighed, inside of her office.

She was staring at the programming for Unit 00's entry plug. It was ridiculously overcomplicated, and some genius had decided to save space by deleting all the comments. As a result, the prototypes coding was almost impossible to read by anyone except a prodigy. Luckily, Ritsuko Akagi was a prodigy.

She leaned forward and resumed her relentless typing. As such, she was oblivious Kaji approaching her office. After checking to make sure the Evil Demon (AKA Misato Katsuragi) was no where in sight, he entered, carrying two cups of coffee.

"Hey there," he said, amiably.

Ritsuko did not reveal her surprise. She looked up. "Mr. Kaji… whatever brings you here?"

"What? Am I not allowed to bring coffee to my hard-working friend?"

The doctor gave a mock sigh. "I suppose I'll make an exception this once." She accepted the Styrofoam cup and sipped it, considered it: "You know, we're sole hope of the entire human race hangs on us and we can't make a decent cup of java."

"It doesn't bode well. So, how goes the work on Unit 00?"

"Ok, I suppose," she turned back to the computer. "This programming is righteously screwed up. I'm half-convinced we should just scrap the existing code and use a modified version of Unit 01's."

"Sounds messy."

"You can say that again. Also, the backup battery seems to have an acid leak, and the biological components have contracted END."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. We're having to regenerate them all from scratch. Also, there's a feedback error in the rear modulation unit…"

"So how long before she's combat ready."

Ritsuko turned back towards her monitor, still clutching her coffee. "No idea. Probably a week or two…"

"Is there any good news?"

"Yes."

There was a pause.

"Well?"

"We just saved a bunch of money on our mecha insurance by switching to Geico."

Kaji chuckled, then a few moments passed in silence. They silently nursed their drinks.

"So…" Kaji began. "How would you feel that we go on a date tonight?"

Akagi gave him a sidelong look. "What? Still trying to make Misato jealous? Go use Maya, she'll never fall for it."

"Nothing of the kind. You're an attractive lady, and I've noticed that you don't have any pictures on your desk…"

Ritsuko gave her workplace a critical look. Indeed, it was barren of personal objects, with the exception of her cat-shaped digital clock. Mostly, it was an overflow of official papers and computer components.

"And, really, the cat clock thing does not bode well on a personal level."

"I could take offence at that," Ritsuko said, facetiously.

Kaji gave a smooth grin. "So, how about it? Just me, you, and some smooth jazz… I know this club down by-"

"I might say yes, if a certain soldier weren't watching us."

Kaji whirled around and saw Misato staring at him through the window in the door. In her hand was an open cellphone, its glowing face looking at him. She pushed her way in, and Kaji cowered in mock terror.

Ritsuko pulled her earphones on and called out, "Tap me on the shoulder if when you're done," she sighed.

"In case you didn't realize, Doctor Akagi has work to do," said Misato, almost snarling. "AND SO DO YOU!"

"Come on, no one's sent the Commander a death threat lately."

"No, they haven't… but Shinji needs you to pick him up from school." From her tone, it was very easy to infer that her wrath was a volcano just a few seconds from violently exploding.

"Shit!" proclaimed Kaji, startled.

"And I'm very curious to find out why you turned your cell off." She was never enlightened, for Kaji rushed out the door at that moment. She sighed, inwardly, and put her phone to her ear. "Third? Yeah. He's on his way. No worries."

-

Shinji sat on a bench outside of the school, just to the left of the gates. Rei sat on a bench situated on the opposite side of the entrance, gazing resolutely off into the distance. Shinji's thoughts were drifting through his one strong memory of home: Hikari. He had dreamed of her last night. They were both naked, sitting in a tub. In the dream, he couldn't move, and he didn't want. Hikari was patiently washing his body, going over everything, making no effort to conceal her breasts. The whole time she was murmuring, "Don't worry, Shinji… I'll take care of you… don't worry…" The last thing he remembered was when she finished and pulled him out the tub, and whispered, "We'll never be parted, Shinji… I'll be your flesh…"

And then he had woken up. And there was a semen stain on the inside of his pants.

But now… he was plagued by feelings of infidelity. He'd looked at Rei and thought she was beautiful…

A car pulled up, a red firebird. Its breaks squealed as it halted. Shinji stood up, school bag in hand. Rei did likewise, but he didn't notice this at first. Kaji got out, wearing sunglasses and ugly tie, per usual. "Hey kids?" he called, cheerfully. "Didja miss me?"

-

Commander Ikari watched the visual feed of Agent Kaji's car through his flat screen monitor. It was traveling towards NERV, blissfully unaware that almost one hundred paramilitary agents were ready to defend it.

"Are you sure putting the boy with the Agent was a good idea?" asked Fuyutski.

"He'll do," Gendo said, inexpressively.

"He was late…"

"He'll do," the Commander repeated.

There was a pause.

"You'll be pleased to know that our stock just split and we're about to outdistance Far Eastern Paramilitary…"

"Good."

"They're paying us to defend New York…"

Gendo could not help but smirk. "A city that is not in the slightest bit of danger."

Fuyutski shook his head. "It made me feel bad to take the city's money – but that isn't of any concern to you, is it?"

"None whatsoever." Gendo closed the window on his computer. It quickly shifted to a desktop with a NERV wallpaper and a small collection of icons. He pulled opened a folder labeled 'possibilites.' A serious of identity manifolds appeared on the screen, mostly the daughters of major corporations – or the female leaders themselves.

"Spying?" asked Fuyutski, dryly.

"No," Gendo said, stoically.

Fuyutski's wide old eyes perused the screen. "Oh, I get it. Using your son as a bargaining chip?"

"Precisely."

"And here I was, thinking that arranged marriages were a thing of the past. We act so civilized…"


	7. 07

**A/N:** Just a shout-out to Hamstadini for the prereading. Move along.

**Bloodstained Saints 07**

_If men were angels, no government would be necessary.  
-James Madison_

_Humanity is condemned to desire the stars and yet be chained to the earth. We will break those chains.  
-Yui Ikari, last words_

-

_How do you feel about Representative Horaki?_

_She's nice._

_Can you elaborate?_

_She takes care of me._

_How?_

_Once they had a dance at the school. She made one of her friends come with me so the other kids wouldn't make fun of me._

Therapy Session 39

-

Deep inside NERV, a test was going. It had been a week since he had arrived at his the company's headquarters, and Misato was wasting no time in training him to defend humanity.

"Faster," she growled.

He was running an exercise is one of the simulation units – an entry plug designed to simulate actually being an Evangelion. Everything was recreated with perfect accuracy. The dark corridors formed by the buildings Tokyo-3, the rain gently on pattering on the Eva's armor, sending gentle nerve pulses to the boy's brain. Shinji's brow furrowed in concentration.

Before him stood a simulation of Set, its core leering out at him ominously. The vaguely human creature was walking forward, its four hands extended towards him.

"Got it," Shinji said. The virtual rifle created very real sensations of kickback as it fired. Set took seven shots to the core and went down. A klaxon warned Shinji of another contact. He swung the gun around and faced another incoming target. Each time he got a little faster at aiming and firing.

In the control room, Misato was still frowning. It was not an out-and-out scowl, but she was still somewhat displeased.

"What's wrong now?" sighed Ritsuko, her eyes not leaving the computer screen.

"His heart rate and respiration," the soldier said, watching the digital representation of the shoot-out. "If he gets this fired up during a training simulation, how's he going to keep it together during an actual encounter?"

"For god's sake, he's fourteen, Misato. You can't expect him to behave like a trained marine."

"He's a defender of humanity. He needs to keep his cool."

"It'll happen eventually. Besides, he's improved drastically since he first arrived – remember that first training session? He could barely hit one target, much less turn around and hit another."

"The next Angel could come at any minute."

"You keep saying that, and yet…"

The program had changed over to air targets. Shinji aimed at these competently, but his ratio of hits to misses was much worse. "Pull it together!" Misato barked into the microphone.

She considered. "Maybe I should start a proper training regimen – make him run the go through basic training, like a real soldier," she replied, half-facetiously.

"Misato, that would probably kill him. Especially when you're in charge."

"Yeah, yeah."

-

Gendo sat at his private desk, in a facility deep below the surface of the earth. His workplace had the same mysterious symbol as was emblazoned on Unit 01's forehead: a warped pentacle, imprisoning a lone yellow eye.

His computer had a communication client opened. The visual feed displayed only 'SEELE-1, AUDIO ONLY,' but the voice was loud and clear.

"The EVA units must be used more efficiently," the chairman was saying, voice old yet powerful. "The repair costs for Unit 01 combined with the updates for Unit 00 rival those of the day-to-day business of the entire UN Government!"

"Sacrifices had to be made," Gendo said, icily.

"Even so, the EVA series must be implemented more efficiently. Furthermore…" Gendo narrowed his eyes. "We will not tolerate any delays on the Human Instrumentality Project. These… Evangelion _monsters_ are merely a distraction."

_Those _monsters_ were Yui's legacy_, Gendo thought. "I understand completely," he said. "However, there is a small matter we must attend to… there is a certain corporation called JetAlone that has come to my attention as a potential… rival."

Keele narrowed his eyes. "I see. What do intend to do?"

-

Shinji drew in silence, his table illuminated by a white desk lamp. Kaji was in his room, doing work, presumably. Every night he would disappear into his lair – as Shinji called it – and work on secret matters. He called it 'cloak and dagger' stuff, which spent most of its time in an electronically-locked metal desk bolted to the wall. Shinji wasn't interested. Before him was a blank page, a sharp pencil, and a creative urge – that's all Shinji needed. Slowly, he began to draw a girl, sitting before a window. As he continued to draw, carefully placing each line, he realized he was drawing Hikari. He showed her in a long, yellow dress, melancholically looking out the window.

He leaned back, looking at this newest creation. It was the third one he had rendered of Hikari. She had come to represent something to him, a certain ideal state that could never be lived up to. He leaned forward, searching the sketch for some flaw. In the week he'd been at Tokyo-3, he had created three images of Hikari, one quite risqué. He'd blushed when he'd conceived of it, even more when he'd drawn it. It showed her bare back as she rose out of a bed, meek sunlight just getting through the curtains. Her bare back was exposed, and just a tiny bit of one of her breasts.

Slowly, Shinji's thoughts drifted through his memories of the class rep. How they met, in an early grade – when the extremely wrathful brunette caught Shinji drawing in the middle of class. From there, they had become acquaintances, then friends. That was not to say that being the rep's friend was terribly unusual – she usually had a fair contingent of friends, but they were mostly female and rarely did they form deep relationships with one another. He turned his gaze towards the window and looked out at the brilliant neon signs of Tokyo-3, the billboards brazenly displaying lies told by marketing executives with eight-figure salaries.

"Hikari," he whispered, and drifted off to sleep with that fond name in his mind.

-

Misato was sitting in the commander's chair. The real commander was presently asleep (or so she thought), taking a well-earned rest after fighting through several layers of UN bureaucracy during the cleanup of Set's carcass. She was off remembering things, eyes distant and unfocused.

She was on her third cup of coffee when the unknown blip appeared on the radar.

"Anomaly detected at the fourth defensive quadrant, ma'am," observed a late-night bridge worker, hands flying his keyboard. Misato's eyes snapped into focus, looking at the Yellow Sea on the large map of Japan on the big monitor. An x had appeared there, indicating an unknown contact.

The captain got to her feet. "Run waveform analysis. Get the pilots here ASAP."

Computers began to hum louder than usual as programs ran and alerts were sent. In moments Japan's entire defensive force had been activated. Units appeared one by one on the screen, everything from light infantry to ICMBs.

"Begin warm-up procedures on the Evas. When are the Children showing up?"

"ETA five minutes on both."

"Good. How fast is the target coming on?"

"ETA twenty minutes."

_Goddamn,_ thought Misato _Five hundred miles in twenty minutes_. "Get me a visual feed."

A few seconds passed before the big screen split into two images. The bottom one displayed humanity's latest nemisis: an eel-like creature with transparent skin that plainly showed off its alien organs. It was cutting through the water at monstrous speed, pushing a large wave before it. The image had to be slowed down for humans to even see it clearly. Intestines pulsed and beat with its body, devoid of bones or cartilage. Yet somehow, in defiance of natural law, it managed to hold a coherent shape.

"Is it amphibious?" growled Misato. The naval forces had no hope of catching it with their comparatively sluggish ships.

"Unknown."

The doors slid open. "Didja miss me?" asked Kaji, pleasantly.

"Is the Third Child here?"

"Yep. I saw him down to the Eva cage."

"Third Child has entered the Entry Plug. Activating Unit 01 in standby mode," a bridge worker said.

Another visual feed appeared on the big board, tucked into the upper right corner, displaying the Third Child: he looked uncertain yet strong, willing to fight.

"The First Child has arrived," observed another graveyard shift officer, stoically.

Ritsuko entered the bridge, rings under her eyes. "You guys woke me up," she said, sourly. "I was having a wonderful sleep in my office."

"Is Unit 00 in any condition to fight?" asked Misato, all business.

"None whatsoever. We've regenerated most of the biological components, but some of the armor has not yet been replaced, and we're not done reprogramming the Entry Plug. Also be advised that I haven't gotten around to training Shinji for nocturnal warfare."

"Shit," muttered Misato, under her breath. "All right, prepare Unit 01 for launch!"

As Unit 01 rushed to the surface, a bridge worker yelled, "Target codename confirmed: Thoth!"

"Target has made landfall. Deceleration has set in; target ETA five minutes!

-

Shinji felt a little less sickened by the ghastly touch of the LCL than he did when he had first climbed in. Gripping his controls, he steeled himself for battle: he was terrified that his father would again threaten to sacrifice that girl if Shinji attempted any act of rebellion. His morals would not tolerate it; guilt would consume him.

The lights of Tokyo-3 created artificial daylight, blotting out even the stars. He was on the north side of the city, in the middle of a large industrial district. Most of the buildings there were in an advanced state of decrepitude.

"I mustn't run away," Shinji said, quietly.

"Target ETA five minutes," HQ informed him. A rifle was ejected from one of the city's hidden armories. Shinji confidently grabbed it from midair and aimed towards the distance, gun barrel lined up just as he'd been trained in the past few days' synch tests. The land around Tokyo-3 was largely empty; it had not existed long enough to develop large suburbs or infill.

"All right, Ikari," said Misato, calm and collected. "When the target comes into view, I want you to immediately open fire, aiming directly for the eye. If that fails, you are to draw your progressive knife and directly attack the core."

"I got it."

Shinji's small side display had a feed of the angel slithering across the ground, collecting dust and debris as it did so. A few UN tanks watched it from a distance, but none made any move to engage. The main view suddenly shifted to infrared, giving him a decent view of the darkness

"5… 4… 3... 2… 1… target in range!"

There was nothing. The surreal colors of the night-vision visor showed him nothing.

"It's cold-blooded!" yelled Ritsuko, suddenly. The visor died in an instant.

Shinji fired before his brain even processed the creature in its paranormal glory. The depleted uranium shells ripped across its form, drawing blood as they passed. The gore sprayed across the industry-ravaged hills. The gun ran out of bullets, and Shinji roughly tossed it aside, drawing the prog knife.

"Wait for my signal," said Misato, calmly. Shinji waited, eyes scanning the smoke released by the explosive rounds. The lights of Tokyo-3 would have to guide him. Suddenly, the creature burst forth, propelling itself off the ground and sinking its teeth into Unit 01's shoulder. Shinji's own shoulder screamed in protest. He twisted free, slashing the knife across its underside. It screeched and sped off, twisting like a snake across the soil. It circled slowly.

"All right, plan B," growled Misato. "Send up heavy rifle." Before it could arrive, the monster leapt forward again, spinning. Dust trailed behind it, worsening visibility. Suddenly, it leapt forward from the darkness, this time aiming to bite Unit 01's chest.

"Goddammit! Retreat!" ordered Misato, yelling at the top of her lungs. Shinji lashed out violently, jamming the knife into its side and creating a long vertical gash. The creature slithered off, within the smoke clouds. "Now! Get to retreat port B!"

But part of Shinji didn't want to run. Part of him wanted to rend and tear, to shed and drink blood. Part of him, he realized, wanted to kill. It was quiet, it was usually comatose, but the Eva pulled it up to the surface. _Isn't it beautiful?_ that evil part whispered, _just like your dirty little picture of Hikari, you little pervert. But it's beautiful in the same way, the screams of the dieing, the murder of angels. _

"Retreat!" But Shinji didn't retreat. He gripped his prog knife and charged. Thoth slithered away, evading the blade that threatened to slice its fragile skin. Shinji charged after it, suddenly gripped by a suicidal urge to destroy without mercy or distinction. He leapt forward, umbilical cord trailing behind him.

The fish-snake suddenly looped around, pulling a U-turn that crushed houses and trees. It swept behind Unit 01 and snapped the umbilical cord. An alarm sounded in his ears, and a countdown timer suddenly appeared on his left. "Retreat _now_!" screeched Misato. The creature struck, sinking its fangs into Unit 01's ankle. He kicked, shaking it loose. Again it fled into the huge quantities of dust kicked up by its movements. His battery was down to two minutes.

Shinji mouth curled into a snarl. He rushed forward, knife extended before him. The creature dodged away, and as it sped away from him, Shinji leapt up into the air and landed on its back, bringing the blade down into the orange eye. Suddenly, a primal, telepathic scream filled his mind; he wasn't sure if it was real or just his mad killing-thing orgasming. The monster attempted to escape the purple aberration, but only succeeded in dragging it along on its back. Without umbilical cord that would have restricted its motion, Unit 01 could not be shaken free from its mount atop Thoth. One minute, Shinji lost all sense of direction in the vast duststorm that formed around the Angel.

As the creature ground to a halt, the Eva's battery went dead. He lost all visibility.

Outside, Thoth's skin violently ruptured, spilling its bizarre guts across the earth. Shinji could still feel the wetness on his skin. It looked like blood, but it had the wrong consistency, like molasses. It made him feel sick.

-

"You fucking **idiot!**" Misato yelled. Shinji flinched. They were in the men's locker room, but Misato did not seem terribly worried about her transgression. "Do you realize how much danger you were in?"

"But-"

"If you die, we're all _fucked!_ Until we find a backup pilot, your body is no longer your own!"

Shinji didn't reply.

"When we have ten pilots and all five EVAs, go ahead, get yourself killed. It'll sting, but you'll be replaceable. However, at the presnt time, you will _not_ defy my orders!"

"Yes, Ma'am," Shinji said, meekly.

"And do you have any idea what the costs for repairing Unit 01 will be? We'll be lucky if they tally to under _ten million!_"

"But… I won…" offered Shinji, hesitantly.

"**THAT. DOESN'T. MATTER!**" the soldier howled at him. Shinji flinched again. "There is _more_ to victory than leaving an enemy corpse laying around – if you keep _being a reckless dumbass_, you're going to wreck Unit 01 and we'll all be screwed!"

She stormed out, still furious. Slowly, dazed, Shinji began to get out of his plug suit. He had trouble understanding Misato – wasn't it hard to be angry all the time? As he slowly dressed himself, his thoughts drifted back to the sudden, monstrous urge to rend and tear he had experienced. What was that? He shivered. He wasn't a killer. That sudden, twisted sensation made him shiver, as if he had been briefly wearing someone else's skin, roughly cut from its original owner and given to him.

As he pulled on his belt, Kaji poked his head in the door. "When I saw Misato coming out, I was afraid she might have broken a few bones."

"No…" Shinji mumbled. "She might have, if I said anything wrong, though," he added, attempting humor.

"That's what you get when you put an ex-marine in charge of an army of teenagers."

"Misato was in the army?"

"Yep. She's seen some pretty horrific things, or so Rits has told me."

Shinji smiled awkwardly. "I dunno… It's just like…"

"She's mad all the time? Yeah."

"Well… why?"

"Shinji, I've spent several years to figure out why she treats everyone like a dog that just pissed on an antique Persian rug. I haven't found out why."

Shinji left the locker room, leaving his plug suit roughly crammed in the locker. Kaji walked by his side, easygoing. Technicians hurried about, mostly with bags under their eyes and clutching coffee cups.

"People don't get much sleep at NERV, do they?" mused Shinji.

"Nope."

And suddenly, she was there: Rei Ayanami, standing in her plug suit, eyes unreadable. Her hair was stained by LCL, indicating that she had been in the Entry Plug, awaiting orders to undertake a suicide mission. Kaji seemed unsurprised by her sudden appearance. "How are you, Rei?"

"I am well, Agent Kaji." She turned her attention to Shinji. "You did well, Pilot Ikari." She bowed, slightly, and walked off. Shinji followed her disappearance through a side corridor, apparently towards the women's locker room.

"Is she mad at me?" asked Shinji. They set off towards the exit.

"No, Rei's like that with everyone," Kaji replied. He considered. "Similar to Misato, except creepy instead of wrathful."

-

Shinji didn't sleep well that night. He couldn't ward off the sense that there was a wicked _something_ crawling around just behind the veil of his conscious mind, looking for the slightest opening to rise up from the darkness – be it through Evangelion or his pictures. He lay awake, hoping for rest that seemed far away. Gradually, restfulness came, but his dreams were disturbed by dark, vaguely human shapes with familiar pentacle symbols on their chests, dancing on the edge of his vision. And before it all was the inexpressive eye-core of the Angels.

-

Rei herself also got very little sleep that night, but for entirely different reasons. She was on an elevator taking her to the darkest levels of NERV, still wearing her white plug suit. On her right stood the solemn Gendo Ikari, on her left was Ritsuko Akagi. These were the two closest things she had to parents.

The elevator door decelerated and the doors slid open. Beyond was the darkness of Terminal Dogma, with its single transparent plastic tube running through the center of the room. The floor was emblazoned with a massive pentacle-eye, the tube penetrating the pupil.

"This wasn't expected," Ritsuko said, as Rei advanced towards the tube. "The Angels are coming faster this time. The At-"

"It is of no concern," Gendo said, as Rei stepped into the tube. The entrance was covered by a descending sheet of plastic, and LCL flooded the chamber. "As long as we have Unit 01…"

"Unit 01 is not foolproof. Hell, how were even able to restrain it, if it's invincible?"

"It'll do. So long as we have the Hound."

Ritsuko gave him a sidelong look. "I seem to recall Alhazred saying that the originals used the exact same logic." In the tube, Rei's eyes floated shut, displaying her slow journey to unconsciousness.

"But we have an edge." Rei seemed asleep.

"Does this have anything to do with that American plane a few months ago?"

"Perhaps."

Suddenly, a computer screen lit up at the base of the tube with a soft beep. A small percentage bar formed, captioned 'UNIT 00 REINITIALIZATION PROCEDURE: SHUB-N.'

-

"Hmph. The government is of no concern," said Keele. "They cannot begin to grasp their own insignificance."

"Even then, they are a threat," said a voice from the shadows of SEELE's hall. "If they new what Ayanami has created in his labs, they would strike him down – and perhaps detect us, as well."

"Whether or not Seto is found guilty or not is irrelevant. The information given him is riddled with falsehoods," Keele said, flatly. "Even if Ayanami Labs is shut down, Ikari has everything he needs."

"And what of the Second…"

"She is a backup. Nothing more."

"And there is the question of Ikari's son, and his relationship with the Hound."

"Gentlemen," Keele said, slightly irritated, "In your fear of outsiders, you miss the true danger. The only threat to our plan is NERV itself – and Commander Ikari."


	8. 08

Gendo watched the security footage carefully. The Second Child was strumming on her guitar, and though there was no audio, the older man could figure out what she was playing based on the movements of her fingers. He thought of when he avidly played several instruments, and felt something approximating nostalgia. He was viewing it on his laptop – he and Fuyutski were in first class on a plane, flying at supersonic speeds to America. The muffled roar of the engines filled the cabin, whispering on the edge of the Commander's consciousness. They were alone, except for a group of suited bodyguards and other businessmen.

"She looks like her father," observed Fuyutski

"Indeed," agreed Gendo.

"Still looking for a wife for Shinji?"

"Yes."

"Why not bring JetAlone into fold? At least on the outer layers – a few of those mechs could help, at least as cannon fodder."

"Perhaps."

**Bloodstained Saints 08**

_One death is a tragedy. One million is a statistic._

_-Joseph Stalin_

_Mary had a little lamb,_

_Little lamb,_

_Little lamb,_

_Mary had a little lamb,_

_Whose fleece as white as snow.  
-Katsuragi Expedition, final transmission_

-

To school. The sky had lightened slightly, but not enough to dispel the constant gloom over Tokyo-3. Kaji was driving far faster than Shinji would have typically liked, but he was too busy thinking about Angels and Evas to care.

"Kaji?"

"Yep?"

"What are the Angels?"

There was a silence.

"Can you keep a secret?"

Shinji's head swiveled around. The man looked completely normal, watching the road carefully. Appearances would suggest that he had said nothing more important then 'How about this weather?' or 'What do you think of that new action movie?'

"Yes," Shinji finally said.

"Shortly before the turn of the millennium, Japan sent the Katsuragi Expedition to Antarctica, supposedly to collect ice core samples… but they had another purpose. They were to locate the origin of a peculiar energy pattern beneath the ice."

"Katsuragi… you mean Misato?"

"Her father, actually. She was in college at the time. Anyway, this expedition successfully located the peculiar energy signature… it was the first Angelic AT Field."

Shinji shivered. "In Antarctica…" What could possibly survive in the freezing temperatures of that strange continent?

"Yes. They unearthed the angel and began to study it… Of course, it all came to an unpleasant end…"

"But didn't the War happen in 2000?"

"Yes… but what happened during the war, really? Has anyone ever presented a rational cause for it?"

"It was China and America fighting over trade rights… We just heard about this in school."

"Sure, but China's main trade partner was America, and vice versa – and the War did more damage than having access to a few Third World markets could ever recoup."

"Then… it must have been… Taiwan?"

"Taiwan, hmm, a major point of contention. However, the Americans had already said that they did not intend to intervene in Taiwanese affairs. There was no threat there."

"Iran?"

"The US said it had no intention of invading Iran."

"But…"

Shinji struggled for some kind of comeback. As he thought about it, though, never in school had he ever been presented logical reasons for why the War happened – only the government line that it was 'inevitable,' and he was rebuked for asking questions. "But…"

"They tell us that it was inevitable. But what compulsion does the government have to tell the truth? When has _any_ government ever told the truth?" mused Kaji.

-

_A terrible wind blows across the ice plains of Antarctica. A lone man stands on the roof of the basecamp, gazing into a whirling mass of light in the distance. He is covered with blood, his parka torn and shredded, exposing gruesome cuts. The rest of the expedition were dead, laying about the blood-red snow below. _

'_Azathoth,' he whispers, and the light consumes him._

-

Shinji still thought Rei, trying to understand the girl. The First Child sat in the corner of the classroom, gazing out of the window at gloomy Tokyo-3. Her albinistic features artistically fascinated him. They conveyed a certain angelic grace, though perhaps 'angelic' was an improper word. The girl was surrounded by an atmosphere of coldness and passiveness, a certain trained apathy towards all the things a teenager would usually concern herself with.

Perhaps this was why Shinji was so interested in her: she was cold in a world of burning passions. _Why do I think the world burns?_ And he could not find an answer.

She had played her usual game of chess with Kensuke, thrashing him each time. No matter what strategy her opponent employed, she knew the ideal counter. By no means was Kensuke incompetent: Rei's knowledge of the game simply dwarfed his.

The rigors of school, however, rapidly stole his attention away from Rei Ayanami and into a series of complex lessons. The curriculum spanned math, theology, psychology, and everything in-between. History called for him to memorize a series of dates during the First Carlist War, an event he would probably never think about again. Theology required him to stumble through a series of Hebrew prophecies, in all of their fire-and-brimstone glory. Philosophy demanded that he decipher the frantic scribblings of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. In fact, the only class he could have been said to enjoy was called 'artistic expression,' the last one of the day.

In essence, it allowed students to create whatever art they wanted, however they wanted. Some students painted. Others wrote in notebooks. Some played music together, creating a constant deluge of sound in the background. Shinji himself sat at his desk and drew in his notebook, having no creative compulsion to do otherwise. His eyes wandered the room until he found Rei, who was a few desks away among the writers. She seemed to be writing a few words; pausing, considering, and then writing a few more. Shinji watched her for a while before deciding that he liked the way she looked – her head perched on one hand as the other scribbled. As the art came together in his, Shinji realized how perfect it was – her shadow, cast against the windowless wall; her face, calm and serene; her eyes, betraying nothing. He had to finish the picture before she left.

He carefully shaded each corner of it to perfection, eyes flickering between his unwitting subject. Minutes before his hour in artistic expression was up, he completed it. It showed Rei – admittedly, with some of her feminine features exaggerated – at a desk, melancholically writing in her notebook. He'd bluntly titled it 'The Writer, Alone.'

In this final part of the class, the students showed their products to their friends and classmates. Shinji felt no urge to look at anyone else's work, nor was he asked to see them. However, as he packed up his pictures, he glanced at Rei. She was still looking at what she had written, eyes flickering over the lines. Forcing down his nervousness, he got up and walked over to her, making his way through the crowd of students.

When he arrived, Rei ignored him. She remained focused on the text. Shinji leaned over and found that it was a long string of algebraic chess notations. "Ayanami?" he asked, nervously. She looked up at him. "Yes, Ikari?"

"Can- Can I see what you made?"

She looked at him searchingly for a few moments. Then, she turned the book around and displayed it to him. "This is art," she said, flatly.

"But-"

"It is a game I played against myself."

Confused, Shinji asked, "What does that mean?"

"I will show you."

-

Rei sat down on the lawn outside, Shinji following behind. The grass was bright green and, in all probability, fake; there was very little green grass anywhere, after the War. Rei produced a laptop out of her briefcase. It was archaic, still running a Windows OS well after the company had ceased to exist. After the machine finished booting up, Rei opened a chess program; she began to play the moves on her notepad using it, and Shinji's artistic insight rapidly revealed the true nature of the 'game' to him: it was not a battle but a kind of _dance_, white's every move perfectly balanced by black's, until the game formed itself into a draw, with no pieces lost on either side.

"It's amazing," murmured Shinji.

"Thank you, Ikari," Rei replied, and closed the program.

"Hey, what are you guys doing back here?" asked Kensuke, poking his head around the corner. Shinji looked around and saw the blond American.

"You can stop the make-out session," continued Toji, brazenly walking around behind the building. "Company's arrived."

"That's not what was happening!" protested Shinji.

"Oh? It's what most kids do back here," the jock replied, unapologetically.

"I demand a rematch," said Kensuke, before Shinji could protest.

"Very well," Rei said. They did not use the computer for it, however: Kensuke provided the board and pieces. Shinji observed with fascination as Rei demonstrated her artistic principals in practical play, each of her moves balancing – negating, even – whatever advantage Kensuke gained through a move was instantly lost. Kensuke had not yet understood the nature of Rei's game and blissfully continued on his course until he maneuvered himself into such a terrible position that Rei destroyed him with ease.

"So what were you doing back here?" asked Toji.

"I wanted to see what Rei made during Artistic Expression," Shinji said.

"Why?"

"I dunno. Curious."

They watched Kensuke's impending defeat for a few moments.

"What did you make?" asked Toji, absently.

"Nothing. Just some doodles."

Kensuke was defeated, but his dignity was intact. "It was a fluke," he said, demurely, as he packed up the pieces.

"Hey Ayanami, you wanna go to the mall? We could bring your boyfriend, too." asked Toji, boredly.

"I'm not her boyfriend!"

"I must go to work," she replied.

Shinji glanced at his watch. "I could call Kaji and ask if it's alright for us to go…"

"I must go to work," Rei repeated, and walked off. The three watched her walk off into the distance.

"Well, there's a cold fish," Toji said, almost sourly.

-

Misato looked at the pile of paperwork derisively. "Angels are messy business," she muttered, before sitting at her desk and beginning the monumental task. The Second Angel's attack had been more damaging than the previous one, including several civilian casualties from Unit 01's crushing feet and more in property damage then the salary of every NERV employee combined. _That kid is such an idiot,_ Misato thought, as she authorized the legal division to compensate – pay off, that is – the family of a kid who had been partially paralyzed by falling rubble. Technically, this should have been CFO Fuyutski's job, but he and the Commander were off on some errand in the United States.

Misato was cold woman, insofar as she felt little guilt over the civilian casualties NERV was paying for. She perceived them as the necessary sacrifices in a war to defend humanity as a whole, cheerfully willing to sacrifice a few for the many.

She continued on this task for about an hour and a half, when her phone rang. Producing it from her pocket, she flipped it open and put it to her ear. "Katsuragi."

"Hey Misato," it was Ritsuko.

"Oh. What's up?"

"We're going to do the activation test for Unit 00 when Rei gets here. You want to come?"

Misato gave the mess on her table a critical look. "Yeah, sure."

As she strode through the metallic halls of NERV, Misato saw the countless people that worked there: suited Section 2 agents, technicians in their brown tunics, scientists in lab coats. Things were busy since the Second Angel: not only were there preparations for the arrival of Unit 02, but repairs had to made to Unit 01, and Unit 00 was being activated. Not to mention the fact that NERV had its own fanclub now, and a new press core had been established, adding to the mess.

However, Misato rapidly discovered that her three weeks in survival training did nothing to help her navigation of extensive underground complexes. Misato arrived on the command deck with a few minutes to spare. Ritsuko was standing in the middle of the room, with its countless computers and bits and pieces of scientific instrumentality. The big monitors on the wall displayed various vital statistics on the EVA and its pilot, along with a live image of the teenager in the entry plug.

"I thought you wouldn't make it," remarked Ritsuko.

"Oh, shut it," replied Misato, sourly. "I haven't memorized the entire layout yet."

"Commencing activation," said Maya.

The monitor on the wall displayed Rei's synch ratio steadily rising towards borderline. Ritsuko eyed it nervously, watching the test proceed exactly according to the operations manual.

"You seem upset," observed Misato.

"Heh, if you'd been here at New Years you'd be nervous too."

"What happened?"

"Unit 00 went berserk at its activation test… nearly killed Rei in the process. Its battery was drained before it could do any serious damage, but…"

"Oh, invite me to the test of an EVA that could go crazy and try to kill us at any moment. Nice one, Rits."

"Oh, we're not in any danger. We fixed all the kinks in the programming, and we've purged Unit 00's biological components of disease."

"And yet you're nervous."

"It's hard to recover from something like that… Maya, how are looking?"

"No anomalies. Rei, how are you feeling?"

"Fine, Lieutenant."

"You're looking good, Rei," began Ritsuko, "Let's begin simulation 1…"

Suddenly, Shinji walked on the bridge. Misato gave him a withering look before turning back to Unit 00.

"Shinji? Why are you here?" asked Ritsuko. "You just got out of synch testing." The boy still carried the blood-stink of the LCL on his skin, even though he had washed off in the showers quite thoroughly.

"I just wanted to see what was happening," the boy muttered. "Everyone was in such a rush..."

Misato felt the urge to grab the kid by the shoulders and demand he realized that he had just fought an Angel a day ago, and if he had any conception of what a media circus this entailed. Thankfully, she was able to fight back her violent tendencies and react in a more reasoned tone. "A lot is happening at once," she finally said, and clamped her mouth shut.

Shinji walked up to the window and watched Unit 00. It was less humanlike than Unit 01 – it had nothing that could be characterized as a face, only a single leering eye in the middle of a helmet-shaped head. Ritsuko began to run basic simulations, calling for low-level motor skills and agility. The monitor on the wall showed Rei's expression of intense concentration as she managed to drive her synch ratio higher and higher to confront these simple challenges. Shinji had since surpassed these training lessons and gone on to harder things, but Rei was just beginning her real training in Unit 00 – she had inbred precision and intelligence, but no experience. There were many reboots.

"Poor kid," muttered Ritsuko, to Misato. They were out of earshot of the Third Child.

"He has the battlefield discipline of a rabid dog," Misato said, harshly.

"Well, yes, but he's all ready developing a crush on Rei, poor kid."

"How many other kids has she rejected so far?"

"I think it's three. They all wanted to take her to the dance last year."

Misato smirked. "My kind of girl."

"A lesbian?"

"Silence, mongrel."

-

Kaji glanced around the old room. It had been built before NERV Proper – the pyramid on the surface. This was way below the surface, in the vanity of the well-guarded facility Terminal Dogma. Kaji poked through the cardboard boxes and abandoned desks. He found his way to a particular workplace, sitting at the far end of the former office. He booted it up and, as it flickered to life, he lit up a cigarette.

As the wallpaper popped up on the screen, Kaji sat down in the ancient chair and began to poke through the files. The OS was ancient – a Linux thing, back when the system was still popular. He found his way through its file tree to a document called '3C – Genetic Reconstruction Program."

"Hello," the man murmured, his cigarette still clutched in his mouth. He opened it and read through it.

"3C OBJECTIVES FOR GENETIC RECONSTRUCTION – 1 Evangelion Synchronization – 2 Fertility – 3 Psych. Stability – 4 Atl. DNA."

A series of encrypted sentences were below it, but that's not what Kaji was interested in. He looked to the string of lines, diagonal and straight, forming two columns. After examining it critically, he produced a floppy desk and inserted it into the ancient computer.

"So, Shinji… let's find out what you really are."

The light of the computer illuminated this abandoned corner of NERV, showing the remains of the dead company GEHRIN: its research staff, scientists, and philosophers supplanted by ex-military and the cold, cynical heart of men like the Commander. Kaji had only been a child at the time, but he'd heard the stories of the first EVA series, and the fate of its creator.

The file transfer ceased, and Kaji quickly booted down the machine and left.

-

"_Mein Gott in Himmel!_" proclaimed Asuka, jumping up. The TV displayed footage from the battle with the latest Angel. Unit 01 crashed its knife down through the angel's eye and rode it as it thrashed around, leaving a trail of destruction behind it. "What an idiot pilot!"

She was in her room, an area which dwarfed most middle-class dining rooms. A variety of stuffed animals sat on the shelves, alongside college-level books ranging from Jane Austen to Albert Einstein. A large plasma-screen television was mounted on the wall, displaying feeds from around the world. An electric guitar sat on a stand next to her bed, polished to a shine. Elise sat on her own, small bed, a kind of sidecar to Asuka's. She wore no expression, and watched the show without comment.

"If they go much longer without me, the whole city will be gone before I can arrive!" Asuka circled the room, an expression of intense concentration on her face. "I wonder who the _dummkopf_ pilot is… I wish they'd give me a name, at least!"

Elise watched her mistress, impassively.

"But they won't send his name over the internet or cellphone, because they're afraid those _Schweinehunde_in the press will find out his name with their nasty little cyberwarfare units… Hmm…" Asuka continued to circle the room clothed only in a short pink slip, which would give anyone entering suddenly quite a view.

Asuka looked up at Elise, the redhead's eyes filled with cunning. "I think it's time we paid a visit to our _own_ cyberwarfare units, Elise. Wouldn't you say?"

"As you would have it, mistress," Elise said, monotone.

"Quick, let us be dressed!" said Asuka, excitedly.

In the course of a few moments, Asuka changed from her slip to a heavy coat. They strode through the carpeted halls of the Sohryu mansion, speeding past the priceless paintings on the wall, barely glancing at their painstaking brushwork.

Germany was freezing outside: the coldest winter on record had swept through Europe. Even Asuka's fine fur coat could not hold off the harsh bite of the snow. Asuka pulled it tight and hurried forward.

The Sohryu Mansion was a massive structure on a hill overlooking Berlin. It spanned four stories and contained over ten thousand square feet, four hundred rooms, along with its own defense system capable of shooting down a tactical ballistic missile or warding off a tank division. A tall concrete fence encircled the compound, topped by automated machine guns and armed guards. The garden surrounding the mansion was forest-like, although barren with winter, and filled by a web-like network of paths. The long road to the street was brick, and Asuka's boots thumped on it loudly. Elise followed behind her. Armed guards strode across the terrain, saluting Asuka whenever she passed.

A limo waited at the gate, which was surrounded by more soldiers. Asuka strode past them and stood impatiently at the door, waiting to be attended to. Elise opened the door for her mistress and Asuka got in.

The drive through Berlin was brief. Asuka stared out the window, seeing the poor of the city lurk in alley. They all looked on the limo with eyes of envy and hate, but Asuka didn't care: to her, they were the weak and stupid of her country, unable to lift themselves above the filth they were drowning themselves in. Asuka never felt threatened; she knew that the helicopter following them belonged to her mother; she knew that the dark sedans following the limo were being driven by men paid by Sohryu Industries. She was a princess in her own domain – her mother even owned the factories and warehouses the lazy poor stood between!

They passed into a more commercial area, occupied by grey high-rises beneath the sullen, smoke-stained sky. The people here were clerks and salary-men, too caught up in their own routine to even notice Asuka and her merry band. The redhead counted the skyscrapers until they arrived at a building plainly labeled 'Sohryu Industries, Special Research Division.' The moment she exited her limo, Asuka was surrounded by her bodyguards, who quickly exited their own vehicles and surrounded her. Any sniper would have a hell of a time picking her out from the dozens of weaving bodies, all in suits and trenchcoat.

The Special Research Division looked like any other corporate office. It had a lobby with a pleasant, albeit unsettlingly cheeful, secretary, and a listing of floors. However, to read those listings would reveal its true nature. The building contained such agencies as, 'Sohryu Paramilitary Division – Headquarters C,' 'Sohryu Espionage/Sabotage Division,' 'Sohryu Air Corp Division – Headquarters B,' and so on. Asuka rapidly searched the directory until she found 'Sohryu Cyberwarfare Unit,' on the top floor. Asuka went to the express elevator and went up, grinning like a cat.

-

'Frau. Sohryu," said the receptionist, a man in his late forties with an easy-going smile and unreadable eyes. "What may I do for you?"

"We need to talk in private," Asuka said. The body guards looked apprehensive, but Asuka strode past them and entered a back room, followed closely by Elise. The receptionist was unsurprised at the handmaiden's presence.

"I want you to break into NERV's folders," Asuka said. "I don't care how you do it."

His eyebrows arched. "Frau Sohryu… that is, indeed, a dangerous business. What are you looking for?"

"I want the name of Unit 01's pilot, so I can find out why he is such a _dummarsh_. I mean, really…"

"Can you not wait until you arrive in Japan…?"

Asuka suddenly seemed very large. "Don't try me, Herr Kafka. I'm not in the mood."

The man stepped back, raising his arms in a gesture of surrender. "All right, all right, Frau Asuka. You should know that your mother has made this very request already."

"Really?" the redhead asked. "Mama never told me about this…" 

"The kid's name is Shinji Ikari. He was born in Tokyo-3 to Yui and Gendo Ikari. He left his high school lately to serve as Unit 01." 

"Oh? What's he like?"

"I have never met him, and a Section 02 personality manifold can do little to fix that. It did, however, say he was interested in drawing and living with Herr Kaji."

"_WHAT?!"_ howled Asuka. The man flinched. "Herr Kaji… into _that_ sort of thing?! It cannot be!"

"He is fourteen…"

"Oh." Asuka turned to Elise. "That exchange never happened."

"Of course, Mistress."

Asuka turned back to Kafka. "Well, what sort of pictures has does he draw?" The aging hacker showed her over to a computer sitting at the back of the room and quickly called off Ikari's profile.

"He looks like a wimp," Asuka commented.

Then, a certain picture of Hikari popped up. There was a long silence. "_THAT PERVERT!_"

- 


End file.
